Under the auspices of the Victoria Naturally Alliance, FOGG were invited to join a local reference group that includes members from community groups and from organisations that work with conservation groups locally and may host volunteers themselves from time to time. Basically the idea is to strengthen our groups so that we can better attract and retain new volunteers. There are many people out there who are more or less interested in the environment, but don’t actually do much about it. The alliance has funding for recruitment campaigns. But before then, most of us need help in thinking through what we would do with a flock of new volunteers. The purpose of the group will be to advise the alliance on project design and to ensure that it is relevant to the groups in their local area. We also plan for the reference group members to gain some new skills in community capacity assessment and social marketing. At the first meeting in March there were representatives from Project Platypus, Friends of the Grampians, Halls Gap Wildflower Show, Halls Gap Botanic Gardens,Trust for Nature, Northern Grampians Shire, Wimmera CMA, Moyston Landcare Group, Australian Plant Society, Ararat Climate Action Group, Stawell Field Nats, Ararat Rural City Council , Project Platypus, Yasmin Kelsall (Project Officer, Victoria Naturally Alliance) and Karen Alexander (Team Leader, Victoria Naturally Alliance).
We had some useful discussions on how our activities overlap and what common characteristics we share. Also on who we should invite to the next meeting on April 21. The project is scheduled to run for the next five months, with the social marketing strategy to be developed by the end of June.
I have more notes for anyone interested.
Margo S